At the end of the 15th century, Europe looked quite different from what it is now.
The borders of the states that we are now accustomed to consider permanent and inviolable were anything but permanent and inviolable.
The borders were constantly changing for the same reasons: the death of the ruler, a wedding, as a concession, or a military campaign.
The stakes in wars during this period were very high, so generals and military leaders were constantly looking for new ways to gain an advantage over their enemies.
The Landsknechts, the German mercenary soldiers who existed from about 1487 to 1556, provided one of these advantages.
Initially created as a force to support the aspirations for the creation of the Holy Roman Empire by Maximilian, the heir to the Holy Roman Empire, they soon began to hire themselves to those who would offer the highest price (including Maximilian's enemy, the king of France - but this practice Maximilian very quickly stopped, ordering all Germans on the payroll of France to return home).
"Landsknechte" ("Landsknechte", the term was first introduced into use by Peter van Hagenbach, the chronicler of Charles the Bold of Burgundy) literally means "servant of the country".
Hired mainly from the poor in southern Germany, they became famous for their extraordinary clothing and effective combat tactics.
At the zenith of their glory, they were the best military force in Europe.
The appearance of the war was changing, the Burgundian Wars (1474-1477) showed the complete impotence of the knight's cavalry against any well prepared formations of pikemen and new hand guns.
The new mobile infantry landsknechts pikemen in the best traditions of Swiss mercenaries, quickly turned into the main component of mercenary armies throughout Europe.
The battles of the Renaissance were sometimes like a chess game, in which victory and defeat were recognized very quickly, with as little blood as possible.
These gentlemen's agreements soon began to disappear from the battlefield due to the use of tactical tricks, such as ambushes, disguising detachments, disinformation of the enemy, smoke and dust curtains to blind the enemy before a sudden and massive attack, which first appeared and were included in the strategy and combat formations of European armies.
The main force of the Landsknechts were soldiers using pikes (a 14-18 foot long shaft weapon with a 10 inch steel tip), supported by "shock squads" armed with huge two handed zweihander swords (Zweihander, a sword 66 inches long, with a double edged, sometimes wavy blade, weighing 7-14 pounds; such soldiers were called "Soldiers on double pay" - Doppelsoldner - they went on the attack in the first ranks, breaking into the ranks of enemy pikes, breaking them and clearing passages for the main forces) or halberds (pole weapons 6-7 feet long).
In addition, detachments of landsknechts owned arquebuses and various types of heavy artillery.
Using new tactics, they soon earned the respect of their enemies.
Impregnable and impenetrable square formations, bristling in all directions with pikes (copied from the Swiss), rows of soldiers armed with new deadly arquebuses, and a mobile artillery system have become the standard of these new deadly mercenary armies.
The army of Landsknechts was terrifying by its very appearance.
The Swiss mercenaries were formidable warriors who considered a dead enemy a good enemy.
The Swiss reigned on the battlefield for about a century, until a new weapon was introduced light cavalry and arquebuses, which they ignored for some reason.
The supremacy of the Swiss in foot battles finally came to an end in the Battle of Bicoca.
Under the command of Georg van Frundsberg, a contingent of Landsknechts destroyed over 3,000 Swiss mercenaries, using earthworks, exhausting attacks and a new weapon arquebuses.
Usually, the formation of mercenary units was simple.
When some ruler needed soldiers, he turned to some experienced soldier with a reputation and charisma.
The reputation was necessary to attract the maximum number of contractors, charisma so that the captain could persuade his flock of comrades with fables about the golden mountains in the future not to start mass desertion at the slightest delay in salary.
There were no special formalities here — it was enough to arrange a recruitment point with a standard bearer and a drummer in a crowded place, put together a gang and go to the right hot spot for a labor ruble.
At the Landsknechts, everything was painted to the smallest detail.
Ordnung ist ordnung.
Recruiters were sent out centrally, each was issued a patent indicating the name of the squad leader (colonel), the size of the squad, its structure, the amount of salary, conditions of service and the period of service (usually from three to six months).
The salary of a landsknecht depended on skills and equipment, allowances, fines and a possible delay period were strictly stipulated in the contract.
For example, although a nobleman was automatically assigned a double salary, the emphasis was not on origin, but on the presence of military skills guaranteed by chivalric education.
Therefore, any commoner could receive the same place of honor in the payroll if he provided proof of his skill, for example, belonging to a shooting guild or a fencing fraternity, or appeared at the review in full armor and with weapons.
The internal organization of the army was also clearly thought out, which was hierarchically structured and filled with an unprecedented number of positions that serve to organize the proper functioning of regiments as combat units.
The rights and duties of the chaplain, clerk, doctor, scout, quartermaster, interpreter, cook, treasurer, flag bearer, trumpeters and drummers were exhaustively defined.
The command ladder was also continuous from the emperor himself to the last captain with his deputy lieutenant.
Thus, the regimental profost was responsible for discipline, schultheiss — for the enforcement of laws, oberster feldweibel — for the maintenance of battle formations, the provost was assisted by hurenweibel, who was responsible for the organization of the wagon train and prostitutes, who was responsible for the stockmeister warehouses, who was responsible for the protection of prisoners steckenknechte, as well as nachtrichter or scharfrichter — the regimental executioner.
Another significant difference between the Landsknechts was their own system of law.
Other laws had almost no force over them, but they were not needed — the life of the landsknecht was completely regulated by special "articles of articles", they are military codes, they are articles.
The Landsknechts had their own list of what was considered a misdemeanor, their own punishments and their own courts.
Therefore, it is not surprising that there was a place for lawyers in their motley company — schultheis must have been on the shelves, who would have been able to navigate in conflicting regulations, correctly interpret articles and apply them in practice.
In general, the realization that they live by their own laws gave the Landsknechts a unique sense of freedom for that time.
Here it did not matter what class they were from, here it was possible to ignore the prohibitions for the civilian population and enjoy special privileges.
Naturally, this further united the Landsknechts as a corporation.
To give you an idea of how free the Landsknechts were from other laws, we can give an example of witchcraft.
Superstition among the military has always been widespread.
When a person finds himself in a stressful situation, he immediately begins to believe fervently, and in all sorts of nonsense.
For example, once the Landsknechts flatly refused to go into battle.
Like, on the day of the Massacre of Babies in Bethlehem (December 28), it's not good to fight, it's a bad day for any undertaking.
Their commander, Rene of Lorraine, was forced to swear dirty and change the date of the battle.
They also believed that after reading in front of the statue of St. Barbarians correct prayer, you can return from the battle unharmed, and the one who looks at the image of St. Christophora will not experience any misfortunes on that day.
Back in the days of the Landsknechts, it was fashionable to get some kind of talisman made from a substance that causes vomiting today.
The most chic was considered "das Nothemd" — a shirt woven and sewn by a virgin on the night before Christmas, in comparison with which the best Milanese armor was not quoted.
According to experienced soldiers, the most reliable sorcery was a piece of paper covered with magic badges, swallowed and washed down with wine (which must first be crossed).
The landsknechts also preferred to be treated with grandfather's methods, and not with regimental paramedics.
In general, everyone was engaged in magic: someone for protection in battle, someone for the accuracy of the shot, someone for luck in the dice game.
And the Landsknechts got away with all this, like the Pope himself, despite the witch hunt raging around.
And the "Hammer of Witches" especially stipulated the inviolability of the army, "finding pleasure in the accurate shooting of a sorcerer," and in practice the fathers of the inquisitors of the landsknechts also did not disturb them.
Moreover, all these superstitions were often welcomed by the command, which either raised morale in this way, or itself believed in the miraculous weaving abilities of the immaculate virgins.
The idea of brotherhood logically led to the fact that the concept of corporate honor appeared within the Landsknecht community.
The Landsknechts understood honor simply — it is loyalty to the given word and loyalty to the oath, that is, business decency, and not a chivalrous code of conduct.
If someone breaks an oath, his perjury (der Eidbruch, der Meineid) discredits the entire corporation, because the reputation for a mercenary is important.
Therefore, the Landsknechts not only fulfilled the terms of the contract with the employer to the last letter, but also kept the oaths given to the enemy firmly.
For example, they observed the agreements on the "good war", when the lives of those who surrendered were saved, they fulfilled their promises not to fight against the merciful winner.
So, in 1509, the Venetians released the captured Landsknechts in exchange for a promise made in the temple not to fight against the republic of St. Mark for one year.
As soon as they joined the rest of the army, they received orders to go to war again.
The Landsknechts flatly refused.
They declared that they wanted to act like "pious military people", and sent their ambassadors to the emperor to notify him of the concluded treaty and their intention to observe it.
The Landsknechtov characterizes an episode of the Schmalcaden War even better.
At that time, there was a fierce fight all over Germany between Protestants and Catholics, or rather, between those who supported the Emperor Charles and those who rebelled against him.
And it so happened that in the city of Neuburg, on the beautiful blue Danube, a garrison of mercenaries serving the Protestants was blocked by the superior forces of the Imperials.
The imperial governor Hans Schnabel proposed to solve the issue in a manly way, without a fight: the garrison surrenders the city and marches home with all weapons and standards.
The Landsknechts agreed.
But the scoundrel Schnabel maliciously deceived them he waited until they came out, surrounded them and forced them to disarm, tear down their banners, and take an oath not to fight against the emperor and the House of Austria with a three day hunger.
The Landsknechts were offended and called this case a "Neuburg disgrace" ("Schmach von Neuburg") and "a new unheard of non Landsknecht custom".
The double crime against oaths and traditions (i.e., the compulsion to swear) was such an extraordinary and scandalous precedent that the regiments of Shertlin and Heideck, which made up almost the entire Protestant infantry, were fully convened to discuss it.
The fact is that even such an oath could not simply be forgotten — it took the election of a special commission by the soldiers, who came to the conclusion that the Neuburg losers were not obliged to observe the forced oath.
The clothes of the Landsknechts were the most decorated and provocative during the Renaissance.
The Landsknechts were free from the laws regulating the style and appearance of clothing that other citizens obeyed Maximilian granted them this exemption:
"Their life is so short and joyless that gorgeous clothes are one of their few pleasures.
I'm not going to take it away from them."
Their garments were famous for their decoration in the style of "boofs and slits", which arose as a result of cutting through the outer clothing and stuffing the lower layers through these slits.
The sleeves were often theatrically inflated, as were the trousers.
Often their sleeves differed in the palette of colors and the contours of the puffs even from one another!
The pant legs sometimes also differed.
They wore wide flat hats, of enormous size, often decorated with ostrich feathers.
Some wore obscenely huge pouches covering their genitals.
Even their shoes were decorated in the style of slits and boofs.
The external effect often led to a sense of visual distortion.
The style of "boofs and cuts" in clothing was also adopted by other peoples, becoming a common type of jewelry in some parts of Europe.
The English nobility was partially fascinated by"puffs and cuts".
Henry VIII began to dress in this style after seeing the clothes of the landsknechts he hired; in fact, the famous portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein depicts him in a doublet decorated with puffs and slits.
Other portraits of Heinrich depict him wearing what looked like a knee length skirt; he adopted this style from the German military skirts worn by some Landsknechts.
Henry's son, Edward VI and Elizabeth I also dressed in this style.
Edward VI
Men who joined the Landsknecht units usually brought with them a woman who took care of them - a sister, a wife or a daughter.
These women were called "Hure" - literally translated "whore" - but they were not prostitutes, but only camp companions (Kampfrauen).
They took care of the men between battles, and even partially participated in the battles themselves, following the fighters, robbing the dead and finishing off the dying.
Some even helped the gunners, dismantled enemy houses for wood, which was later used for earthworks and fortifications.
Women also adopted the "boofs and slits" style of clothing, although not to the same extent as men dressed.
Their hats were similar to men's.
One characteristic aspect of women's clothing was expressed in the fact that they shortened their skirts, raising the border a few inches from the dirty ground and creating boofs from excess fabric around the hips.
The life of a landsknecht was not easy - the punishments for violating laws and regulations were quick and cruel, the battles were bloody and terrible, and the living conditions were usually uncomfortable.
The main (and only) benefit was the fee: the landsknecht earned more in a month than the farmer earned in a year.
If he survived, he could retire rich.
The development of firearms caused the decline of the power and glory of the landsknechts - dense formations of pikemen.
The wild, unbridled clothes of the Landsknechts disappeared by the second half of the XVI century, and even the word "Landsknecht" disappeared from use, now they were called the Imperial Infantry (Kaiserliche Fussknecht).
Thus ended one of the most famous periods of the military history of Europe.
